In the days leading up to the TikTok ban in the U.S. on Sunday, U.S. users flooded the Chinese app RedNote, which offered a similar experience to their favorite short-form video app. The app, which is listed in the U.S. App Store under its Chinese name Xiaohongshu, quickly became the No. 1 free app in the U.S. But after Trump paused the ban, use of RedNote in the U.S. rapidly declined. By Monday, RedNote had lost over half its daily active users in the U.S. after reaching a high of 32.5 million daily actives on the day of the ban.
According to digital market intelligence company Similarweb, RedNote’s daily active users in the U.S. declined by 54% on Monday when enforcement of the ban was put on hold. President Trump offered TikTok a 75-day extension of the deadline, allowing TikTok more time to negotiate a deal that would keep it alive in the U.S.
App intelligence provider Sensor Tower saw a similar trend as the week continued. Per its estimates, the average U.S. mobile daily active users for RedNote from January 20 to 22 declined by roughly 17% compared with the week prior (January 13 to 19).
TikTok users had originally joined RedNote en masse to send a message to lawmakers and Meta alike. According to one report, also citing Sensor Tower data, some 700,000 U.S. users flocked to RedNote within two days as the ban deadline approached. By Thursday, Similarweb said that RedNote had reached 3.4 million daily active users across iOS and Android in the U.S., a 133.8% week-over-week increase.
The U.S. users joining RedNote were signaling that the government’s fears of the “national security threat” poised by a Chinese-owned app with access to U.S. users’ personal data was not a concern to them. In addition, they wanted to demonstrate they would rather join another Chinese app than return to Instagram to use Reels.
There were several reasons why so many U.S. TikTok users made this decision. Some found the ban hypocritical, given that Meta had profited off their user data for years, many said in their videos, while others simply didn’t care if China had their data or not.
As one popular TikTok sound put it, “You’re telling me the Chinese government has access to all of my personal data and what they chose to do with that information is psychologically manipulate me via algorithmic content into reading smutty books about fairies.”
(The sound references the fantasy books loved by the readers in TikTok’s sizable “BookTok” community, such as Sarah J. Maas’ “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series. In other words, they didn’t see TikTok as any sort of threat.)
As the TikTokers engaged on RedNote, surprising cultural exchanges began to occur.
Users asked each other about the cost of living in their area, while Chinese and U.S. users alike wanted to know if their government had characterized the other society accurately. U.S. users, for instance, asked about China’s social credit system, while RedNote’s Chinese users asked if it was true that many Americans had to work two jobs to pay their bills. Food, healthcare, and the accuracy of U.S. TV movies and shows, like “Friends” were among the numerous topics discussed.
However, RedNote’s position as a top app in the U.S. was a trend that isn’t likely to last, at least as long as TikTok is available. For one, RedNote is localized in Mandarin, prompting many to turn to Duolingo to study the language. The language-learning app saw a 216% spike in U.S. usage, it said. However, learning a new language is challenging — and many users may have given up in time.
In addition, unlike TikTok, RedNote is focused on the Chinese market. TikTok benefited from being a global app — something TikTok itself pointed out when arguing in the Supreme Court about why it would no longer be the same if forced to sell.
Ahead of the ban, TikTok’s U.S. daily active users surged to a record high for the past year, as 106.8 million users on iOS and Android engaged with the app on Sunday.
